Troubled football legend Paul Gascoigne has turned to a ‘Marmite vitamin drip’ in his latest attempt to beat the booze.

The Gateshead-born ex-England star has been trying out a radical treatment, receiving fortnightly ‘infusions’ of a compound derived from niacin, the vitamin found in Marmite.

Gazza, 48, has struggled with alcohol addiction for years and completed numerous stints in rehab.

He has been trying the new treatment since the start of the year and hailed it as “amazing”.

After taking the £400-a-time drip at a clinic in Hertfordshire, the ex-Tottenham and Lazio midfielder said: “It’s made me feel good. It has given me hope. It’s amazing.”

Experts say the organic compound NAD+ reduces both the physical discomfort of withdrawal from alcohol and quells the brain’s cravings for booze.

Gazza said he has been dry for a year after several alcohol-related health scares but began to feel down in the dumps again over Christmas.

He said: “I had been feeling a bit down and hadn’t been going to the gym. I didn’t want to do anything.”

Watch Paul Gascoigne singing Simply the Best at the Magnum Leisure Centre in Irvine, Scotland

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But after having a double infusion of NAD+ in the New Year, he claimed the way his body “just changed” - and he was even ready to pull on his boots again.

He added: “For the first time in months, I woke up at 6am, I felt happy and excited, energetic, and ready to play a football match.”

Friends say he already looks better than the skeletal figure who collapsed outside a London hotel two years ago.

The therapy was first championed half a century ago by Bill Wilson, one of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous , before being brought back to the UK by former jockey, and recovering alcoholic, John Gillen, who set up a Harley Street clinic.

One consultant psychiatrist, Dr Mark Collins, said there was “good evidence” NAD+ helped as a short term boost to the system but nutritionist Ian Marber questioned the claims as “a bit woolly.”